He touched my mouth and said, "Look! Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sins atoned for."

You said in your heart, "I'll ascend to heaven, above the stars of God. I'll erect my throne; I'll sit on the Mount of Assembly in the far reaches of the north;

Then the LORD said, "Just as my servant Isaiah has walked around naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a warning for Egypt and Ethiopia,

Therefore I said: "Look away from me; and let me weep bitter tears; don't try to console me over the destruction of the daughter of my people."

And he said: "You will revel no longer, you virgin daughter of Sidon, now crushed. Get up, cross over to Cyprus but even there you will find no rest.'"

to whom he said, "This is the resting place, so give rest to the weary"' and, "This is the place of repose" - but they would not listen.

Because you said: "We have entered into a covenant with death, and we have an agreement with Sheol, so when the overwhelming scourge makes its choice, it cannot reach us, since we have made lies our refuge and have concealed ourselves inside falsehood,'

Then the Lord said: "Because these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, worship of me has become merely like rules taught by human beings.

Instead, you said, "No! We'll escape on horses!' Therefore, you'll flee away. And you said, "We'll ride off on swift steeds!' Therefore your pursuers will be swift.

"Now I'll rise up," the LORD has said, "now I'll exalt myself; now I'll be lifted up.

Then Hilkiah's son Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the secretary, and Asaph's son Joah, the recorder, approached Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and let him know what the field commander had said.

By your messengers you have insulted the LORD, and you have said, "With my many chariots I have climbed the heights of mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest of its pines; I reached its remotest heights, the most verdant of its forests.

"Please, LORD," he said, "Remember how I have walked before you faithfully and with a true heart, and I have done what pleases you." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

I said, "Must I leave in the prime of my life? Must I be consigned to the control of Sheol? Bitter are my years!"

I said, "I won't see the LORD in the land of the living; and I'll no longer observe human beings among the denizens of the grave.

Now Isaiah had said, "Let them prepare a poultice of figs and apply it to the boil, so that he may recover."

You said, "I will always continue Queen forever!' You didn't take these things into your thinking, nor did you think about their consequences.

"You trusted in your own knowledge. You said, "No one sees me.' Your wisdom and knowledge have misled you. You said in your heart, "I am the one, and there will be none besides me.'

He said to me: "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will glorify myself.'

"I said: "I've labored for nothing. I've exhausted my strength on futility and on emptiness.' Yet surely my recompense is with the LORD, and my reward is with my God.

"But Zion said, "The LORD has abandoned me, and my God has forgotten me.'

But I will put it into the hands of those who tormented and oppressed you, those who said to you, "Lie down, so we can step over you,' so that you had to make your back like the ground, and like a street for them to walk over."

And one has said: "Build up! Build up the road! Prepare the highway! Remove every obstacle from my people's way.'

For he said, "Surely they are my people, children who won't act falsely." And so he became their savior.

"I let myself be sought by those who didn't ask for me; I let myself be found by those who didn't seek me. I said, "Here I am! Here I am!' to a nation that didn't call on my name.

This is what the LORD says: "Just as new wine is found in the cluster, and people have said, "Don't destroy it, for there is a gift in it,' so I'll act for my servants' sake, by not destroying them all.

"Hear this message from the LORD, you who tremble at his words: "Your own brothers who hate you and exclude you because of my name have said: "Let the LORD be glorified; he will see your joy,' yet it is they who will be put to shame.